Automatic insulation characteristic analyzing device

ABSTRACT

A rectifier and integrator circuit is provided for rectifying an alternating current voltage corresponding to that applied across a specimen to be tested and obtaining the mean value V of the applied voltage from the rectified voltage, and another rectifier and integrator circuit is provided for rectifying an alternating current flow corresponding to that flowing through the specimen and obtaining the mean value I of the current flow from the rectified current flow. A sample holding circuit is provided for storing the mean value V1 of the applied voltage as obtained in the previous sampling cycle, and a sample holding circuit is provided for storing the mean value I1 of the current flow as obtained in the previous sampling cycle. A differential amplifier is provided for receiving the mean value V1 signal and a signal of the mean value V2 of the applied voltage as obtained in the following sampling cycle and generating an output corresponding to the difference Delta V between the signals, and another differential amplifier is provided for receiving the mean value I1 signal and a signal of the mean value I2 of the current flow as obtained in the following sampling cycle and generating an output corresponding to the difference Delta I between the signals. A divider is provided for obtaining the value of Delta I/ Delta V characteristic of insulating properties of the specimen, and a sample holding circuit is provided for storing the Delta I/ Delta V value as obtained just when the difference Delta V reaches a predetermined value and supplying the stored Delta I/ Delta V value signal to a displaying device. A timing circuit is arranged to control the operations of the said circuits through each sampling cycle so that the insulation characteristics of the specimen can be automatically measured at a high speed.

United States Patent 1 3,737,769

Terase et al. [451 June 5, 1973 [5 AUTOMATIC INSULATION v fying an alternating current voltage corresponding to CHARACTERISTIC ANALYZING that applied across a specimen to be tested and ob- DEVICE taining the mean value V of the applied voltage from the rectified voltage, and another rectifier and integra- Inventofsl Hitoshi Terase, g y sumio tor circuit is provided for rectifying an alternating cur- Namikawa, Tokyo, both of Japan rent flow corresponding to that flowing through the specimen and obtaining the mean value I of the cur- [73] Asslgnee gs g z gf s s l i gz rent flow from the rectified current flow. A sample Japan holding circuit is provided for storing the mean value V of the applied voltage as obtained in the previous [22] Filed: Feb. 14, 1972 sampling cycle, and a sample holding circuit is pro- PP No: 225,857 vided for storing the mean value I of the current flow as obtained in the previous sampling cycle. A differential amplifier is provided for receiving the mean [30] Foreign Application Priority Data value V signal and a signal of the mean value V of the applied voltage as obtained in the following sampling cycle and generating an output corresponding to the difference AV between the signals, and another differential amplifier is provided for receiving the Mar. 16,1971 Japan ..46/l4'5l2 [52] U.S. Cl ..324/54 31/14 mean value I signal and a signal of the mean value I [58] Field of Search. ..324/52, 54 f the current fl as obtained in the f ll in pling cycle and generating an output corresponding to References Cited the difference Al between the signals. A divider is provided for obtaining the value of AI/AV characteristic UNITED STATES PATENTS of insulating properties of the specimen, and a sample 2,837,714 6/1958 Hill ..324/s4 holding circuit is Provided for Storing the AI/AV value 324 54 as obtained just when the difference AV reaches a ...324/52 predetermined value and supplying the stored AI/AV 3,543,092 11/1970 Hoel .324/52 X value signal to a displaying device. A timing circuit is arranged to control the operations of the said circuits Primary Examiner-Gerard R. Strecker through each sampling cycle so that the insulation Attorney-Flynn &'Frishauf characteristics of the specimen can be automatically 'masu dat h'h d. 57 ABSTRACT e re spee A rectifier and integratorcircuit is provided for recti- 7 Claims 3 Drawing Figures Over-input Cutting- Detecting off 5 Circuit Switch l2 I3 I4 15 I6 27 28 Full'wove ime iuiiu Sample Differen- Sample I Rectifylng Circuit Holding tiul Divider Holding Circuit Circuit Amplifier Circuit Display Delay Device illiu lullllg Sam le Differen- AYComp curing and Circuit Circuit i 32 i j 7 OR Circuit j ND Patented June 5, 1973 2 Shoots-Shoot 1 ARITHMETIC CIRCUIT DISPLAY DEVICE ABNORMAL PULSE DETECTOR 4SPEC|MEN 33 CUT-OFF SWITCH VOLTAGE REGULATOR SOURCE FIG.

APPLIED VOLTAGE(V) FIG.2

Patented June 5, 1973 3,737,769

2 Shouts-Shoot 2 l l 33 Over-input Cutting- Detecting off 5 Circuit Switch I3 I4 l5 I6 27 28 Full-wave] Integrating Sample Differen- Sample Rectifying Circuit Holding tial Divider Holding Circuit Circuit Amplifier F Circuit I2 I 26 Delay Circuit 32 '7 OR Circuit Full-wave integrating Sample Differen- AV Comp;l

. i an an Rectlfymq Circuit Holding tidl 4 Ditggcflng Circuit Circuit Amplifier ci it 29 22 24 AC- 0c AVSetting High Level Theoretical Cmvmmg Circuit Voltage Circuit source Timing Circuit FIG.3

AUTOMATIC INSULATION CHARACTERISTIC ANALYZING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventional A.C. current testing methods have been used to non-destructively detect voids in a drytype insulated structure such as the stator coil of generators or motors, or non-destructively measure the void contents or the break-down voltages of such structures. According to the conventional A.C. current testing methods, a commercial frequency voltage is applied across an insulating specimen to be tested. The applied voltage and the current flow through the specimen are measured by use of a voltmeter and an ammeter respectively. An operator dots the readings of the voltmeter and the ammeter on a sheet of graph paper to depict a current I-voltage V characteristic curve on the graph paper. From the characteristic curve, the first and second voltages P and P at which the current increasing rate AI/AV is suddenly and widely changed are read out. The breakdown voltage of the specimen can be estimated by multiplying P by a constant dependent on the kind of the specimen. The current increasing ratio can be evaluated by drawing figures. This current increasing ratio is used to determine the void content of the specimen. As seen from the foregoing, conventional methods require the reading-out of voltage and current values from a voltmeter and an ammeter respectively, and a long time for drawing figures. Moreover, these methods need at least two operators. In the event that these methods are employed to test an insulating specimen having a small void content, they will tend to cause a measurement error because changes in the value AI/AV will be small.

It is an object of this invention to eliminate such defects as mentioned above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an automatic insulation characteristic analyzing device for non-destructively measuring the break-down voltage of an electrical machinery which is one of important factors for judging the insulating performance or the deterioration degree of the insulating materials of the electrical machinery, or for measuring changes in partial discharges in the insulating materials of an electric machinery as the applied voltage increasingly changes, or measuring change in the number of voids in which void discharge is being caused, in the insulating materials of the electrical machinery as the applied voltage changes increasingly. 7

An analyzing device according to this invention is characterized in that a relationship between the A.C. voltage applied to an insulating specimen to be tested and the A.C. current flow through the specimen due to the said applied voltage, which current flow is changed dependently on how much void discharge is caused in I the specimen, can be determined through a high speed arithmetic operation so that change in the current flow due to the increasing applied voltage may be continuously detected with a high accuracy, In this manner, the time required for testing can be reduced and the number of necessary operators can be reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the electric circuit of an analyzing device according to this invention;

FIG. 2 shows a graph of test results as recorded in an X Y recorder as the display device; and

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the main electric circuit of the device according to this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1, reference number 1 is a commercial frequency voltage source, 2 is an automatic voltage regulator, 3 is a testing transformer, 4 is a specimen to be tested, 5 is a resistor for detecting electric current flow through the specimen, 6 is a bypass condenser, 7 is an instrument transformer, 8 is a choke coil for blocking harmonic waves or noises from the voltage source, 9 is an arithmetic operation circuit for obtaining AI/AV value as constructed according 'to this invention, 10 is a display device, 1 l is a circuit for detecting abnormal corona pulses, and 33 is a circuit breaker for stopping the test when an abnormal corona pulse is detected. The arithmetic operation circuit 9 and the abnormal corona pulse detecting circuit 11 are shown in greater detail in FIG. 3.

In FIG. 2, there is illustrated a AI/AV voltage characteristic curve as recorded in an X-Y recorder as the output device. From this characteristic curve, the following information on the insulating property of the specimen can be obtained.

In a range of the applied voltage below the first suddenly current increasing voltage P wherein AI/AV is constant, partial discharge is only expected to be caused. In this range, the electrostatic capacity of C of the specimen can be calculated from (AI/AV) as follows:

C 1/21rf(AI/AV where f is the frequency of the voltage source.

When discharge is caused in a void the corona starting voltage of which is lowest among the other voids of the insulating specimen, the value of AI/AV is firstly changed. The applied voltage at which this occurs is referred to as the first suddenly current increasing voltage P (V The value of AI/AV at this voltage P is referred to as (AI/AV),. The following ratio m will change dependent on the number of voids in the specimen wherein void discharge is caused due to the applied voltage.

changed. Because of the fact that corona discharges are successively caused in a group of voids having different corona starting voltage as the applied voltage increases, the value of AI/AV is increased step by step as shown in FIG. 2. The difference between (AI/AV), and (Al/AV) in FIG. 2 is related to. the number of voids having a corona starting voltage of V as contained in the specimen.

As shown in FIG. 2, the voltage at which the value of AI/AV is greatly increased is referred to as P The value of AI/AV at this point is referred to as (AI/AV)P The following ratio m is representative of the degree plied voltage V can be calculated from the following equation:

(the increment of AI/AV)dV (4) Thus, many informations necessary to judge the insulating property of the specimen can be obtained.

Referring to FIG. 3, reference number 12 is a voltage divider resistor, 13 and 17 are full-wave rectifying circuits for rectifying the detected current and the detected voltage respectively, and 14 and 18 are integrating circuits for obtaining the mean values of the detected rectified current and voltage respectively. and 19 are sample holding circuits for storing the obtained mean current and voltage respectively. 16 and 20 are differential amplifiers for detecting Al and AV respectively. 27 is a divider for obtaining the value of Al/AV. 28 is a sample holding circuit for sampling a value of AI/AV and holding the sampled value. 21 is a AV comparing and detecting circuit, 22 is a AV setting circuit, 23 is a resetting switch, 32 is an OR circuit, 24 is a high level theoretical voltage source, and 25 is an AND circuit. The AND circuit 25 transmits a sampling signal to the sample holding circuit 28 and to the sample holding circuits 15 and 19 through a delay circuit 26, when the AND circuit 25 receives simultaneously a sampling signal from a timing synchronized syncrhonized with respect to the frequency of the commercial frequency voltage source and a sampling signal from the OR circuit 32 generated due to a sampling signal from the AV comparing and detecting circuit 21 or resetting. The purpose of the delay circuit 26 is to cause the sample holding circuits 15 and 19 to start the next sampling cycle after the sampling of AI/AV by the sample holding circuit 28 is completed. 29 is a AC-DC converting circuit for indicating a voltage applied to a specimen being measured. 11 is an over-input detecting circuit (abnormal corona pulse detecting circuit).

An example ofthis invention employing an X-Y recorder 31 as a display device will be described in connection with FIG. 3. I

With the voltage applied to the specimen being kept constant, the detected voltage from the instrument transformer 7 (see FIG. 1) is rectified by the full-wave rectifying circuit 17. Assuming that a time in which the mean value of the detected voltage is determined is T (forexample, 40 milliseconds), the detected voltage is integrated by the integrating circuit 18 for T As a result of this, the mean value of the detected voltage in T is obtained from the integrating circuit 18. Assuming that the arithmetic operation time of the sample holding circuits 15, 19, 28 and the divider 27 is T, (for example, l0 milliseconds), the obtained mean value of the detected voltage is held for T This is reset in the following period of T (for example, 10 milliseconds).

In the integrating circuit 18, an operation performed through time periods T T and T as mentioned above is repeated. The sample signals are presented to the sample holding circuits 15, 19 and 28 in the timing period T Therefore, if a high level theoretical voltage 24 is applied to one of the inputs of the OR circuit 32 through the resetting switch 23 during any of the periods (T T T (40 ms 10 ms +10 ms), at least one sample signal will be obtained from the output of the AND circuit 25, thereby the obtained mean value of the detected voltage is stored in the sample holding circuit 19. On the other hand, the detected current from the detecting resistor 5 is set to a suitable operational level by the voltage divider resistor 12 and rectified by the full-wave rectifying circuit 13. The rectified current is integrated in the integrating circuit 14 for a time period of T,. Thus the mean value of the detected current is obtained. The obtained mean value of the detected current is held for the following period of T and reset in the further following period of T Also in the integrating circuit 14, an operation performed through time periods T T and T as mentioned above is repeated. As in the case of the mean value of the detected voltage, the mean value of the detected current is stored in the sample holding circuit 15 through the resetting switch 23 in the timing period of T As the voltage applied across the specimen is then increased, the values of AV and Al are obtained as outputs of the differential amplifiers 20 and 16 in successivc timing periods of T and arithmetic operations of obtaining the values of Al/AV are performed by the divider 27. When the value of AV reaches a predetermined value as set in the AV setting circuit 22, a sample signal is generated from the AV comparing and detecting circuit 21 to cause the OR circuit 32 and the AND circuit 25 to produce an output signal. This output signal permits the output, Al/AV of the divider 27 at this time to be stored and held in the sample holding circuit 28 and simultaneously causes the mean values of the voltage and the current at this time to be newly stored in the sample holding circuits 15 and 19. This causes the two inputs of the differential amplifiers 16 and 20 to receive the same signals, so that the outputs of the differential amplifiers l6 and 20 become zero. The stored AI/AV value continues to be stored in the sample holding circuit 28 until the voltage applied to the specimen is increased to the extent that the output, AV of the differential amplifier 20 reaches again the predetermined value as se t in the AV setting circuit 22, thereby the new value of AI/AV is obtained. In this manner, as the voltage applied across the specimen is arbitrarily increased, the values of Al/AV can be successively obtained. These outputs, AI/AV values obtained from the sample holding circuit 28 are supplied to the Y-axis input of the X-Y recorder as display 31. In this example, if a predetermined value of AV as set in the AV setting circuit 22 is mV at a full scale of 10 V, the number of times of arithmetic operation is 100. If the time necessary for one arithmetic operation of Al/AV is 60 milliseconds, the testing will be completed in 6 seconds. It will be appreciated that the apparatus of this invention can effect testing at a much higher speed and with a much higher accuracy than conventional methods do. The output of the instrument transformer 7 is converted into a DC. voltage output in the AC-DC converting circuit 29 and then supplied to the X-axis input of theX-Y recorder of the display device 31 to display the voltage appliedto the specimen. The overinput detecting circuit 11 serves to detect an over input I due to the generation of an abnormal corona pulse and actuates the cutting-off switch 33 to prevent the destruction of the specimen due to the over input, thereby stopping the testing.

According to the apparatus of this invention, any optimum value of AV can be set for testing a specimen, dependent onthe kind of the specimen.

What we claim is:

1. An automatic insulation characteristic analyzing device comprising:

a first full-wave rectifier for rectifying an alternating current flow corresponding to the current flow through a specimen to be tested,

a first integrator for integrating the output of said first rectifier,

a first sample holding circuit for storing the output of said first integrator,

a first differential amplifier for detecting the difference AI between the outputs of said first integrator and said first sample holding circuit,

a second full-wave rectifier for rectifying an alternating current voltage corresponding to that applied across the specimen,

.a second integrator for integrating the output of said second rectifier,

a second sample holding circuit for storing the output of said second integrator,

a second differential amplifier for detecting the difference AV between the outputs of said second integrator and said second sample holding circuit,

a divider for dividing the output of said first differential amplifier by the output of said second differential amplifier to obtain an output AI/AV,

a third sample holding circuit for holding the output of said divider until the next sampling cycle,

a detecting means for detecting when the output of said second differential amplifier reaches a predetermined value of AV,

an AND circuit having its output coupled to said third sample holding circuit and being arranged to turn on at each simultaneous receipt of a sample signal from said detecting means and a timing signal as synchronized with the frequency of said applied alternating current voltage, thereby synchronizing the output of said detecting means with the frequency of the applied alternating current voltage and converting means coupled to said alternating current voltage and converting said alternating current voltage into a direct current voltage, the insulation characteristics of the sample being tested being a function of both the values of AI/AV and the value of the direct current output of said converting means.

2. A device as defined in claim 1 and further including a display device for displaying the output of said third sample holding circuit as a function of the output of said converting means.

3. A device as defined in claim 1 wherein said first and second sample holding circuits, said first and second differential amplifiers, said detecting means and said AND circuit are arranged to adjust said predetermined value of AV.

4. A device as defined in claim 1 comprising means coupled to said detecting means for adjusting said predetermined value of AV.

5. A device as defined in claim 1' wherein said insulation characteristics of the sample are a function of the value of Al/AV when the value of AV reaches said predetermined value, and of the value of the direct current output of said converting means.

6. A device as defined in claim 1 wherein said AND circuit is further coupled to said first and second sample holding circuits.

7. A device as defined in claim 5 wherein said AND- A ing circuits through a delay circuit. 

1. An automatic insulation characteristic analyzing device comprising: a first full-wave rectifier for rectifying an alternating current flow corresponding to the current flow through a specimen to be tested, a first integrator for integrating the output of said first rectifier, a first sample holding circuit for storing the output of said first integrator, a first differential amplifier for detecting the difference Delta I between the outputs of said first integrator and said first sample holding circuit, a second full-wave rectifier for rectifying an alternating current voltage corresponding to that applied across the specimen, a second integrator for integrating the output of said second rectifier, a second sample holding circuit for storing the output of said second integrator, a second differential amplifier for detecting the difference Delta V between the outputs of said second integrator and said second sample holding circuit, a divider for dividing the output of said first differential amplifier by the output of said second differential amplifier to obtain an output Delta I/ Delta V, a third sample holding circuit for holding the output of said divider until the next sampling cycle, a detecting means for detecting when the output of said second differential amplifier reaches a predetermined value of Delta V, an AND circuit having its output coupled to said third sample holding circuit and being arranged to turn on at each simultaneous receipt of a sample signal from said detecting means and a timing signal as synchronized with the frequency of said applied alternating current voltage, thereby synchronizing the output of said detecting means with the frequency of the applied alternating current voltage and a converting means coupled to said alternating current voltage and converting said alternating current voltage into a direct current voltage, the insulation characteristics of the sample being tested being a function of both the values of Delta I/ Delta V and the value of the direct current output of said converting means.
 2. A device as defined in claim 1 and further including a display device for displaying the output of said third sample holding circuit as a function of the output of said converting means.
 3. A device as defined in claim 1 wherein said first and second sample holding circuits, said first and second differential amplifiers, said detecting means and said AND circuit are arranged to adjust said predetermined value of Delta V.
 4. A device as defined in claim 1 comprising means coupled to said detecting means for adjusting said predetermined value of Delta V.
 5. A device as defined in claim 1 wherein said insulation characteristics of the sample are a function of the value of Delta I/ Delta V when the value of Delta V reaches said predetermined value, and of the value of the direct current output of said converting means.
 6. A device as defiNed in claim 1 wherein said AND circuit is further coupled to said first and second sample holding circuits.
 7. A device as defined in claim 5 wherein said AND circuit is coupled to said first and second sample holding circuits through a delay circuit. 